Hunt on for fourth accused

The railway police are now on the lookout for the fourth accused in the case of the murder of Laija Khan, 30, who was strangulated by her husband and her body dumped in a local train.

The fourth accused, Aslam, is a friend of her husband, Abdul alias Lotan Khan, 38. Explaining his role in the crime, a railway officer, on condition of anonymity, said: “Aslam is a close friend of Lotan and helped him in the crime as well as to dump Laija’s body in the train.”

The railway police on Wednesday arrested the victim’s father-in-law Kudus Khan, 65 and brother-in-law Noor Islam Khan, 35, while the special squad of the Mumbai police arrested her husband from Kolkata. Originally from Bangladesh, Lotan was planning to flee there.

Laija’s body was found in the luggage compartment of a local train at Churchgate station on April 25. The body was found wrapped in a piece of cloth, which also contained around 24 sets of clothes, including a mosquito net. The clues helped the police get to the victim’s Nallasopara residence where they found photographs of her with Lotan.

Lotan was arrested after CCTV footage showed him boarding the train’s luggage compartment with a sack.